The MAHA Agenda: Implications for Drug Pricing Reform

May 28, 2025 | 2:00PM–3:30PM ET | Live Webinar

A pile of colorful pills with a red wooden block featuring an upward-pointing arrow symbolizes increasing prescription medication expenses

Recorded May 28, 2025 | On-Demand Webinar

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Overview

This program will cover the MAHA agenda for drug pricing reform, with a particular focus on ongoing implementation of the IRA Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. Recently, the new Administration issued a broad-ranging Drug Pricing Executive Order, proposing foreign reference pricing on the Hill, and continuing implementation of the 2022 IRA. Currently, the Program is subject to a myriad of constitutional challenges, and litigants argue that IRA’s non-compliance excise tax functionally pushes manufacturers to agree on drug pricing in violation of the First, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments. Attendees will learn about the practical effect of these challenges, Most Favored Nation Drug Pricing, other initiatives on product development, investment decisions, importation, and future litigation strategies brought by manufacturers.

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$149

Members

$249

Non-Members

Speakers

Ralph F. Hall
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Chief Executive Officer, Hall Strategies, LLC

Biography

RALPH F. HALL is Chief Executive Officer of Hall Strategies, LLC. Ralph provides consulting services to clients in the areas of FDA statutes and regulations, regulatory compliance, as well as health care policy and legislation, and particularly the application of those regulatory systems to the medical device industry. Ralph’s rich background with drug and medical device regulation and corporate compliance matters makes him one of the nation’s foremost experts. Ralph previously served as counsel at Faegre Baker Daniels where he provided legal services, including FDA-related matters, corporate compliance, the design and implementation of multiple cross-disciplinary, corporate legal strategies, corporate law department organization and management, and general corporate counseling. Ralph has also served as General Counsel for Guidant CRM and Chief Compliance Officer for Guidant. Ralph furthermore serves as a Professor of Practice at the University of Minnesota Law School. He received his BA from Indiana University and his juris doctorate from the University of Michigan where he was a Weymouth Kirkland Scholar.

Rachel Sachs
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Professor, Washington University School of Law

Biography

RACHEL SACHS is a scholar of innovation policy, exploring the intersection of health law, food and drug regulation, and patent law. Her work analyzes problems of innovation and access to new health care technologies. Professor Sachs’ scholarship has appeared in journals that include the Duke Law Journal, the NYU Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and Health Affairs.

Professor Sachs served in the Biden-Harris Administration as a Senior Advisor at the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the General Counsel, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Division. She has testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, United States House of Representatives Committee on Ways & Means, and United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. She currently serves as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Prior to joining Washington University in St. Louis, Professor Sachs was an Academic Fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics and a Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School. She also clerked for the Honorable Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She received her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She received her A.B. in Bioethics from Princeton University.

Conor Sheehey
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Director, Leavitt Partners, LLC

Biography

Conor Sheehey is a director at Leavitt Partners, where he helps clients across the health care sector to navigate a range of policy opportunities and challenges, as well as to advocate for and advance patient-focused priorities. Prior to joining Leavitt Partners earlier this year, Conor spent four years as a senior policy advisor on the staff of the Senate Committee on Finance, which has jurisdiction over Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and other federal health programs. In that role, Conor advised Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) on numerous policy areas, from prescription drug access and affordability to medical device and AI coverage and reimbursement, along with clinician and hospital outpatient payment, among other issues.

During his tenure at the Senate Finance Committee, Conor served as the Republican staff lead on prescription drug policy during the development, consideration, enactment, and initial implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), including by litigating key provisions before the Senate Parliamentarian and, in the wake of the law’s passage, spearheading bicameral oversight efforts related to the IRA’s major prescription drug reforms.

In this position, Conor also championed a number of bipartisan initiatives, most notably by co-authoring and shepherding the committee’s successful advancement of the comprehensive pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reforms, provider relief provisions, and mental health enhancements included in the Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability Act (MEPA) and the Better Mental Health Care, Lower-Cost Drugs, and Extenders Act (Better Act). Additionally, Conor co-authored the committee’s bipartisan white papers and proposals on reforming Medicare’s clinician payment system and preventing and mitigating medication shortages.

Before transitioning to committee staff in 2021, Conor served for four years in the Office of Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), ultimately as the Senator’s Deputy Legislative Director. Conor was policy lead for the Senator, during that time, on all health care, education, labor, and retirement security issues, across both the Finance Committee and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). While in that role, Conor staffed Senator Scott on myriad markups, covering surprise medical billing, public health programs, and prescription drug reforms, among other topics. He played a leading role in drafting and advancing bipartisan legislation on issues ranging from bolstering advanced manufacturing technologies and promoting access to proven gene therapies to supporting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and improving obesity prevention efforts.

Prior to coming to Capitol Hill, Conor taught for three years as a Teach For America corps member in the Bronx, NY while earning his M.A. He received his B.A. with distinction from the University of Virginia, which he attended as a Jefferson Scholar.

Moderated By Kristie Gurley
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Partner, Covington & Burling LLP

Biography

KRISTIE GURLEY advises life sciences clients on complex pricing, reimbursement, and market access issues. Kristie brings unique insight from her recent experience serving in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where she supported the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on drug pricing issues, including implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). In this role, Kristie served as a lead attorney on the IRA Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, including with respect to policy development, operations, and the first cycle of negotiations. She also supported the Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program and additional IRA implementation efforts, Medicaid Drug Rebate Program rulemaking and agency determinations, and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation’s development and launch of a model for cell and gene therapies.

Kristie’s practice involves strategic, policy, and regulatory advice supporting market access for drug and biological products. Kristie provides advice related to federal health care program coverage and reimbursement, Medicaid price reporting, agency engagement, payer contracting and formulary access, value-based contracting, and other issues under federal and state drug pricing regimes. In addition to regulatory counseling, Kristie advises on strategic commercial transactions, litigation opportunities, compliance and enforcement risk, and policy advocacy.